So how’s this episode? *relaxed sigh* things are finally back to normal now!

What’s that supposed to mean? Didn’t you take notice of my last review, it should be obvious what I mean.

To be honest whenever you’re talking about this or any other show like it I kind of just block you out–saves my sanity that way… Tch! Well if you had been listening you’d remember that last episode had almost ~zero~ fanservice, which after Episode 2 and 3 having had monumental amounts was a bit of a shock to the system. And it didn’t help matters that the non-breast related plot of Episode 4 was considerably lacking.

Ah, so by back to normal you mean– Sweet anime boobs, as far as the eye can see!

They’re not even moving and yet the jiggles! What is this sorcery?!

Well I’m glad you’re happy… I mean not really, but at least it beats listening to you complain. So what (if anything) happens in this episode? The Shinovi Masters begins! And the rules are it’s basically a tournament style competition where each ninja team will compete against another and if their leader is knocked out then the whole team is out. They keep competing team vs team until only one remains. But it’s not just your basic fighting, each round has a unique feature to it. With Round 1 being a ‘Naked Dodgeball Fight’, Round 2 ‘Naked Cavalry Battle’ and Round 3 ‘Naked Pole Topple’.

Locked and loaded.

Um, excuse me?! “Naked”! Calm down, they don’t compete naked (unfortunately) rather the consequence for being knocked out by an opponent is that you become naked. Achieved through means of ~dubious credibility~. In the first round if the dodgeball hits you your clothes disintegrate, in the second round, well nobody gets naked except for the losing team captain after her clothes are blown off by the opponent and the third world takes place on an obstacle structure surrounded by water that makes clothes invisible upon contact.

Kagura acting like a loli torpedo was ridiculously funny.

Seems legit… actually no, seems really dumb. But whatever, man… I don’t deny this show is dumb but it’s also incredibly fun. And even occasionally sexy, but I just like seeing the ridiculous jiggles and anime nipples, I’m a simple man of simple pleasures.

Emphasis on the “simple”, so who wins? Does it even matter? Yumi’s team wins. Except that doesn’t make them the ‘Shinovi Masters’ just yet. As it turns out this was all just a qualifier for the ~true~ test, they now have to go up against Senkou, Gekkou and the ridiculously overpowered Fubuki–only then will they release the girls from Hanzo Academy. Then Asuka appears from the stands, intent on fighting Senkou, Gekkou and Fubuki herself only to be ~sort of~ convinced by Yumi to let her help too. Asuka is still being all emo about the situation, which for the record I’m still totally fine with, it at least makes her a bit more interesting than she was in the first season! And that’s more or less where the episode ends, teasing an epic battle for next week’s episode!

Okay Asuka, you get your anger problems out!

‘Kay, so overall thoughts on the episode? Not only was this a much needed return to fan-service, it also was legitimately entertaining and contained a bunch of fun character moments–and there’s a lot of characters to pick from! If I’m to complain about something it’s that some of the fighting animations were very mediocre with very little attention to detail or fluidity and sometimes very little movement at all. But if anyone’s seriously here ~just~ for the action as opposed to the fan service than they’re probably watching the wrong show.